The present invention relates to manufacturing bodywork parts for a motor vehicle.
More particularly, the invention relates to an assembly made up of at least two bodywork parts, including a part with an overmolded film on an outside face.
The use of bodywork parts with overmolded films is becoming more widespread, the advantage of such parts being that they do not need to be painted.
Furthermore, the film has better scratch resistance than does paint.
The film is generally preshaped prior to being put into place in a mold, thus enabling the film to match the shape of the mold.
To overmold the film, the film is put into place in the mold, optionally together with the preform, and then thermostatic material is injected into the mold.
For reasons of appearance, either the film is cut out accurately so as to present an edge that is regular, or else the edge of the part is made as an undercut so as to hide the edge of the film, in which case the edge of the film can be irregular.
It is quite difficult to cut the film accurately, and the presence of an undercut edge makes the unmolding operation more complicated.
An object of the present invention is to simplify the manufacture of bodywork parts including an overmolded film.
The invention achieves this by means of a novel assembly made up of at least two motor vehicle bodywork parts, including a base part having an outside face carrying an overmolded film with an edge, wherein said base part is partly covered by one or more masking pieces, in particular trims, arranged in such a manner as to mask at least a portion of the edge of the film of the base part.
By means of the invention, the base part including the overmolded film is made easier to manufacture since it is not necessary to make an undercut edge, nor is it necessary to cut the film very accurately.
In particular, the base part can have a draft or tapering edge or the like and the film can have an irregular edge, with the irregularity being masked by the masking piece(s) covering the base part.
In a particular embodiment, the masking piece(s), which can have some function other than that of masking the edge of the film, can be arranged to cover the base part completely in those regions of its outside face that are not covered by the film.
The base part and the masking pieces can be shaped and assembled together in such a manner as to form a visible outside surface that is substantially continuous, which can be preferable from the point of view of appearance.
In a particular embodiment, the base part has a step in which at least a portion of the edge of the film is situated, the depth of the step corresponding substantially to the thickness of the margin(s) of the masking piece(s) covering said base part.
The masking piece(s) can constitute fenders and/or peripheral trim or indeed other bodywork parts.
In a particular embodiment, the base part constitutes at least one shield and the assembly has at least one masking piece constituting a trim that runs along at least the bottom edge of the shield.
The trim can extend into the wheel arch region.
In a particular embodiment, the base part can have two co-molded portions using different materials, and the junction between said two portions is covered at least partly and preferably completely by the masking piece(s).
Thus, the masking piece(s) can simultaneously mask the edge of the film and also the junction between the various materials constituting the co-molded part.
One of the two co-molded portions can constitute a shield and the other a spoiler.
Advantageously, the two co-molded portions together form a setback where they join, which setback is shaped to receive one or more masking pieces.
When the base part has traces of injection points, these traces are preferably located so that they are covered by the masking piece(s).
The base part can be made of a thermoplastic material that is translucent or transparent, and the film can be cut out in such a manner as to define at least one region that the film does not cover so as to form a glass for a lighting device.
When the base part is obtained by co-molding different materials, at least one of the materials can be a translucent or transparent thermoplastic material and the film can be cut out in such a manner as to cover only part of said material so as to leave at least one region that is uncovered and that constitutes a glass for a lighting device.